Stars
by SweetSinger2010
Summary: Edward sighed. "I know exactly how you feel, Ness. I want to give monsters like that the treatment they deserve. For a while, I did, and in doing so, became more of a monster myself. But you, Renesmee, have an ability that I never had--and can never have.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: This is just a one-shot fic portraying a father-daughter moment between Edward and Renesmee. I'm not getting technical with it; all of the Cullens still live in Forks, though it's been six years since Renesmee's birth. Because of her relative age, which is sixteen, she is a sophomore at Forks High School. I'm not going to try to delve into Nessie's supposed family ties to our favorite vampire coven, nor am I going to try to explain why the Cullen "children" (all long-graduated from Forks High) are still living at home. It's just a simple fic, folks, and my first attempt at fan fiction in several years. Reviews would be much appreciated. Please be nice. =) Oh, one more thing. Sadly, I own nothing. It's all Stephenie Meyer's. _

Stars

Alice's breath caught quietly in her throat as her eyes became blank and distant. Her vision lasted only a few seconds, but when she returned to herself, Bella's questioning eyes were on her.

"Renesmee is on her way home," Alice said, her sing-song voice reluctant. "She'll be coming down the driveway in two minutes."

"What—"

"No," Alice amended suddenly, the corners of her tiny mouth pulling into a frown. "Make that ten-ish minutes. Nessie's pulled over somewhere on the road between here and the library."

Bella jumped to her feet, ready to run and save her precious little girl.

"Where? What's the matter? Has she been in an accident? Is she hurt?" Bella pressed anxiously. Her chest seemed to flutter frantically where her dormant lay as she waited for Alice's answer. For an agonizing moment, Alice sat motionless, her eyes squeezed shut in deep concentration. Although she'd learned to "see" Renesmee in her visions, it was still difficult for her, and the visions were often hazy and incomplete.

Finally, Alice's topaz eyes opened, and relief washed over her pixie's face.

"Nessie's upset over something," she explained, almost cheerfully. Bella ground her teeth in motherly frustration. She needed _details_.

"What _is_ it, Alice? Why did she pull over?"

"She pulled over to _cry_; she's more deeply upset than I originally saw. Hmm. I don't know what the matter is, but she wants to talk to Edward as soon as she gets home. Edward's headed back here right now, much to Emmett and Jasper's disappointment; they're close enough to the house that he saw my vision, and now he's as worried as you are. Ness will be home in five minutes. If you go now, you can talk to Edward, and then walk back in here right as Nessie's coming in."

Bella caught just a glimpse of Alice's satisfied smile as she sprinted downstairs, through the living room, and out of the big house. She arrived at their cottage the same time as Edward did. She ran into his arms.

"Renesmee is upset. She's coming home right now. Alice said that she wants to talk to you."

"I know," Edward whispered against his wife's hair, stroking her dark waves gently. "I saw Alice's vision. Renesmee's thoughts are so incoherent; I can't figure out what's wrong. When she was crying, she was hunched over, wrapping her arms around her waist; the way that you used to."

Bella pulled out of her husband's embrace and looked at him, suddenly horrified. She opened up her mind to him, unable to form words with her lips.

_Jacob?_

"No," Edward said with a snort of laughter. "If there were a problem with _Jacob_, Ness would be _mad_."

Bella allowed herself a small chuckle, but the deep concern she felt for her daughter remained. Her eyebrows drew together. Edward reached to smooth out the wrinkles on her perfect forehead; his touch, however small, sent a shiver up her spine. Oh, how she _loved_ him. Their lips met for a perfect moment; they broke away from each other when they heard Renesmee's car coming up the driveway. Bella looked at Edward anxiously.

"I'll wait here for her," he said softly. "She doesn't want to talk to anyone else." Bella nodded and turned to go back to the big house, squeezing Edward's hand as they parted. Bella concentrated on walking to the house at an annoyingly _human_ pace, so that she would arrive at the same time as Renesmee. And she did. Bella had no more than walked in the door when she saw her daughter come in, fling her bag on the couch, and then plop down at the dining room table, her head buried in her arms, fists clinched. Esme and Rosalie were instantly at her side, murmuring gently, and smoothing her hair from her tear-streaked face.

"Don't ask; I'm not going to show anybody anything. I don't want to talk about it," Renesmee proclaimed miserably, her voice muffled by her jacket sleeves.

"I know, dear heart," Bella said gently, rubbing her daughter's back. "You don't have to."

"Mom," Renesmee sobbed as she stood and whirled around to cry into her mother's shoulder, tears flowing afresh. Bella stroked her daughter's hair and rocked back and forth softly with her in her arms.

"Sshh, sweetheart, it's ok. It's ok." Bella waited until Renesmee's sobs abated to speak again. She exchanged glances of alarm with Esme and Rosalie. "Your father is waiting for you at home," she whispered. "Can you make it there alone?"

Renesmee nodded, swiping a hand across her eyes.

"_I'm_ fine," she said acidly, and no one missed the emphasis that she placed on _I'm_. She stood up and stalked out of the house with a sudden, unexplained fury, leaving three very bewildered women in her wake.

She continued to stomp as she made her way through the trees on the way to the cottage that she and her parents lived in. She fought tears the whole way, stumbling occasionally when her eyes blurred. She pushed the tears away ferociously, and looked up to see her father standing a few yards away from her on the cottage's threshold.

Edward's eyes widened; he'd never seen Renesmee so upset. Her mind was a tumultuous place, with a few outstanding things. The face of a friend, a troubled confession, Renesmee's pain and helplessness…

"Oh, Ness," he breathed, holding out his arms to her, understanding. "I'm so sorry."

She stumbled into his embrace. "He beats her," she gasped in between horrible sobs. "He gets drunk and he beats her and he's been doing it for years and no one knows, dad. No one knows. No one can do anything to help her."

"Shh, shh," Edward soothed. "Calm down, and then start from the beginning." He stroked her mahogany waves that were so like her mother's. She gulped in two huge breaths of air before pressing her pale hand to her father's cheek. He held it there with one of his own.

_Stay tuned for chapter two! Coming soon to a computer screen near you… R&R. =)_


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: I noticed that in the author's note I wrote at the beginning of chapter one, I said that this fic is one-shot. That's obviously inaccurate. It was going to be a one-shot, but then I realized that it would turn into a ridiculously long one-shot if I was going to fit everything in one chapter, so to speak. So, here's chapter two. Hope you enjoy! Oh, and many thanks to my reviewers; you're greatly appreciated. (Especially phantome101, who reminded me that Renesmee's hair is bronze like Edward's rather than dark like Bella's. Sorry for the discrepancy; it won't happen again!) And, again, I must state that I own nothing of Twilight. But enough babble; on with the story!_

_**Earlier That Afternoon**_

Renesmee strode gracefully into Forks' pathetic excuse of a public library, smiling brilliantly at all who made eye contact with her, and sat at a vacant table near the children's books section. She pulled out her pencil, notebook, and history book and arranged them neatly in front of her. She glanced down at her stylish watch—a gift from her aunt Alice—and saw that her friend, Beth, was almost ten minutes late for their study date. Renesmee frowned. She'd known Beth for three years, and Ness knew that Beth was a real stickler for punctuality. But she also knew that everyone was entitled to have an off day every now and again, so she decided to give Beth the benefit of the doubt. Renesmee waited patiently for another ten minutes. And then, just as her thumb hovered over the dial button on her cell phone, Beth swung into the library, backpack slung haphazardly over one shoulder, strawberry blonde hair flying out behind her. Renesmee smiled and waved to catch Beth's attention.

From a distance, Beth appeared to be very well put-together. She was wearing a typical, adorable Beth outfit: a long sleeved cardigan sweater with a tank-top underneath, a pearl necklace, straight-leg jeans, and coordinating ballet flats. But as Beth came closer, Renesmee saw that her friend was far from put together. Beth's gorgeous shoulder-length hair was oddly skewed, her sweater wrinkled, the little mascara and eye-liner she wore streaked and smudged, her smiling lips trembling infinitesimally, her blue-gray eyes frantic and apologetic. And was she favoring her left arm, cradling it at her side just the tiniest bit?

No one else in the library would have noticed anything amiss in Beth's appearance and behavior. But no one else in the library was as attuned to the feelings and needs of others as Renesmee was. No one else in the library had the sensory perception unique to a half-vampire. Renesmee did.

She stood as Beth came to the table, and embraced her lightly. Beth winced just the tiniest bit at the slight touch of Renesmee's hand on her arm.

"I'm so sorry that I'm late, Ness," she said as she sat down across from Renesmee. There was a forced, sort of manic cheerfulness in Beth's voice that disturbed her deeply. "I just couldn't get it together this morning."

"Don't worry about it," Renesmee said gently, smiling. "Who wants to be early to study anyway?"

"Ha. Right. What are we studying today?"

A look of confusion flashed over Ness's face. "I thought we were going to start taking notes for our history presentation."

Beth flushed pink and sighed. "Right. I'm sorry. I don't know what's gotten in to me today." She quickly changed subjects. "What's our assignment?"

"Page four hundred," Renesmee supplied, opening her textbook. "The beginning of the section about the Civil War."

"Great! That's my fav—"

At that moment, Beth's half-zipped back-pack fell completely open, wrenching off of her shoulder, peeling back her sweater in the process. She stared, open-mouthed, at the mess on the floor.

"_In_credible," she grumbled. Wordlessly, Renesmee knelt down and began to arrange Beth's scattered things neatly before Beth had a chance to leave her own seat. She blushed delicately when Renesmee handed her her back-pack, fully zipped and more neatly organized than it had been before.

"Thank you," she murmured.

Renesmee smiled and was about to reply when she saw Beth's exposed arm, bruised all over from elbow to shoulder. Renesmee's mouth fell open in horror.

"Beth," she breathed, a slender hand coming up to cover her mouth. "What _happened_?"

Beth's face flushed scarlet.

"Nothing," she mumbled uneasily, "It's nothing, Ness. I tripped into the doorframe when I got up last night. That's all." She yanked her sweater back into place.

There was a hard, defensive edge I her voice. But her stormy eyes were pleading, begging Renesmee not to ask ay more questions, not to open the door on her private world of hurt. She could sense Renesmee's hesitance to accept her story.

"Please," she whispered.

Renesmee was taken aback by the sudden, quiet intensity in Beth's voice.

"O-okay," she stammered, chocolate eyes wide. Then she regained her composure quickly. She took a deep breath and forced cheerfulness into her voice.

"Well," she said as she rose and returned to her seat. "This project should be easy. My uncle Jasper can help us out; he's a huge Civil War buff."

Ness flashed a brilliant smile at Beth, who completely missed the inside joke. She laughed, easing the tension. Ness laughed too, and they got to work on their project.

Both Renesmee and Beth were hard workers, so over the course of an hour, they made great progress. However Renesmee's mind wasn't truly on her work. She was worried about Beth. Her doorframe story was bogus. Ness was certain of that much. But what was the truth? She had no idea.

She bit and gnawed on her lower lip until it was sore. She stole furtive glances at Beth.

_She _certainly seemed to be wholly devoted to her work, but as Renesmee studied her closely, she knew that this could not be so. It was obvious that Beth was in some kind of physical, if not emotional, pain. She would touch her right arm, the bruised one, and wince slightly. And then she pushed back her left sleeve, to covertly inspect the arm she'd been holding when she'd come in.

Renesmee was once again horrified.

Beth's left wrist was bruised worse than her arm. Totally purple. And swollen. She must be in a lot of pain, because her wrist was certainly broken. She adjusted her sleeve back over her tender wound and glanced up at Renesmee to make sure that she had not seen. Renesmee averted her gaze so quickly that Beth never noticed she'd been looking. She had to bite her tongue to keep from begging Beth to come home with her and have Carlisle look at her wrist. But Renesmee kept quiet, knowing that Beth's pride would prevent her from accepting any such offer of help. But still, Ness felt that she had to _try_.

They'd been working hard for about two hours when Renesmee closed her notebook and lay her pencil aside.

"Well," she said as she flexed her fingers and stretched casually, "I think we can finish next week after school with no problem. It won't be difficult. We know how the war turned out, anyway; old Dixie was turned over to the illustrious carpetbaggers."

Beth giggled a little bit, and the fell silent. Renesmee could see the quiet pain and stress in her lovely, stormy eyes. She reached out and gently placed her hands on Beth's. Beth met Renesmee's gaze with confusion and surprise.

"Beth?" Renesmee spoke her name timidly.

"Yes?"

"You didn't trip into the doorframe last night." It was a statement rather than a question. Beth remained quiet. She stared down at the table.

"Beth," Renesmee said softly, squeezing her fingers with gentle pressure. "What happened?"

Suddenly, Beth was blinking tears out of her ambivalent eyes. She shook her head.

"I can't," she whispered, lips trembling. "I can't."

Renesmee pursed her lips, frustrated, but not willing to cause her friend any additional pain. "Are you in trouble?" She probed gently.

Beth snorted, eyes suddenly aflame. "I have been for years. The filthy drunk." She spat the last word.

_Filthy drunk? _Renesmee turned the words over in her mind for a few seconds. And then the truth crashed down on her. Beth's father had a reputation…

"Your father?" she gasped, stunned. "He—does he—he…_beats_ you?"

Beth nodded tightly. A tear rolled down her cheek. She spoke in a small voice, very vulnerable. "I think this morning was the worst. He'd been gone for days; I'd begun to think that maybe he wasn't coming back. And then there he was, furious with me over something he'd _imagined_ I'd done. I've never seen him in such a rage." Her voice trailed off and her eyes were distant, full of agony.

Thick silence reigned over the girls for just a moment before Beth's vibrating cell phone made both of them jump. When she answered, a man's voice was already yelling, screaming, cursing, irate without any proper cause. Beth's face was ashen, totally white to the lips. She endured a minute of the rant before slamming her phone shut, jumping out of her chair, and throwing her bag over shoulder. It all looked like one fluid movement, but every part of her was quivering with fear.

"I have to go." Her voice was strange. She quickly turned to leave. Renesmee gathered her own things, and was an instant behind her friend, half-running to keep up with her.

"Let me help you," she pled desperately, "Beth, please, you can't go home. Come with me."

Beth jumped in her truck, slamming the door in Renesmee's face. "No!" She cried breathlessly. "Renesmee, you can never tell anyone about this. Promise me."

"Your wrist—it's broken." Ness whispered, her eyes welling with hot tears. "Please, please. Let me help you."

But Beth was already backing out, speeding out of the parking lot. Renesmee turned slowly and trudged to her car. She felt like she'd been punched in the stomach, and she wasn't the one being abused. Her heart broke for her friend. Why was such a sweet girl in such a bad situation? Why? How come nobody had ever seen the signs, tried to help in any way? Why was Beth forced to put on a brave face?

Renesmee ruminated as she drove, yelling her questions at the dashboard, becoming more upset by the second. Unable to combat the flood of tears any longer, she pulled onto the shoulder and parked the car.

"It's not fair! I don't understand! How could anyone be so cruel to Beth?" Renesmee sobbed harshly.

She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to soothe the ache in her chest.

The ache called compassion.

_Well, that's chapter two. Let me know what you think! And have a very happy new year! _


End file.
